The conquistadors arriving was like tr allied armies arriving in nazi death camps in WWII. Thank God they conquered and stopped that culture.
My ancestry is primarily Spanish-but like most other people of Spanish ancestry, there are Native Americans in the mix-no doubt some of them were Aztecs-who were once part of the Apache tribes before they headed South-none of those tribes were very nice people to begin with...
As far as I’m concerned, the Spaniards might have stopped human sacrifice as such, but they redefined it by bringing Spanish methods of death-by-torture-probably a worse one than a death by execution as a sacrifice. The Spaniards also brought the Inquisition they had used to “convert” anyone not a Catholic in Europe-come to Jesus our way or die by torture and/or burning at the stake-not the best way to win converts-the Spanish also enslaved every surviving Native American they got ahold of-and when too many of them decamped with haste for parts unknown to avoid capture or died in escape attempts they brought over a bunch of captive Africans to replace them-they were just as bloody and cruel as the Natives in my opinion-just more refined in their methods...
Taking conquered enemies as slaves was still common practice everywhere at that time-the Spaniards were just taking the defeated Natives as spoils of war like everyone else did, along with raping women, and stealing all the treasure they could cram into their galleons for the return trip to Spain to finance war in Europe-NOT nice people or heroes in any sense that I can see...
None of my ancestors were nice people, as far as I’m concerned-fortunately we are all a bit more civilized now...